Chapter 42

The process was slow. After a month the daily reports noted a 0.1% oxygen content at 50 kilometers. By six months the content was up to 10% and the planes were able to drop to 40 kilometers and still be at one atmosphere and 30oC. The surface imaging was starting to detect changes in the surface reflection. Small pools of some liquid were beginning to be seen in the valleys. By a year the carbon dioxide content had dropped to a point where the surface gas temperature was 100oC and the pressure was 3 atmospheres. The planes were orbiting at 5000 meters. Two had been destroyed in high wind shear zones but the other eight were still working well. The bacteria, algae, and lichen could now live on the surface in the dawn zones. The surface rock temperature was still 400oC and the process of producing hot organic goo continued as the organisms seeped into the surface.

NASA was so thrilled that they gave Harold and George the go ahead for another 500 million dollar rocket to drop landers on the surface. These landers were not only relay platforms for atmospheric and surface data but also contained the next generation of organisms for the conversion process. There had been much argument over the choice of the next organisms to use. Harold was in favor of more lichens and bacteria that could digest the hydrocarbons from the original blue green algae. The environmentalist were getting into the fray as it became obvious that the new world would really work. The instant experts were everywhere. You know just give em a cause and presto - a band of experts with attorneys and a war chest. In six months the gifted ordinary doctor had created - improved a planet. Now it was time for the committees to mess it up.

Harold had realized early in his medical career - really first in anatomy class, that organisms were built on the previous model. They were a product of the ultimate committee, the committee to create evolution. Like all committee processes, it was not quick. It was neither efficient nor the optimal solution. It was simply the committee's decision. In things biological, there was a very limited potential for organisms. We use the same organic molecules that the algae and slug worms do. The reason people are so enthusiastic about plant products - cannabis, cocaine, and opiates was simply that we used the same compounds for mental functioning that plants used to attract insects. Yeast shit is our drink for special occasions. The compounds were difficult to develop genetically, so once something worked. It was never changed. Genetics is the ultimate in bureaucracy. Is it sacrilegious to say that God created the world by committee? Who knows?

Once the committee has made a decision, it is set in DNA concrete for all eternity, or a billion years, which ever comes first. In anatomy it was obvious how limited the design choices were. We could make tubes. Somewhere in the distant past we had randomly arrived at the genetic code to make tubes. So everything from the neural axis to the gut was a tube. We learned or rather developed the genes to make muscles that pulled. So every muscle in the body of every animal on the planet uses muscles that pull. No matter how ridiculous the proposition. It was too expensive genetically to make a new set of muscles that could push. So no animal has a muscle that pushes. There are no joints in the body that allow continuous rotation. So no animal can have wheels. No bird or fish can have a propeller. The committee has spoken. The committee has made a permanent decision. Some of these decisions slowly die out but most live on to haunt us. Much of the effort of pediatric surgeons is spent fixing the defects of early genetic decisions. The appendix, a boon for the surgical intern, is a genuinely stupid organ we can't get rid of. No one has ever missed their appendix. There are no support groups for people without appendices. No one mourns their loss or asks for a transplant, but we keep growing them because some ruminant animal 150 million years ago developed one. Harold could see it now. Tyrannosaurs Rex is chasing some dumb brontosaurus around the swamp and he catches him because the bronto has right lower quadrant pain from appendicitis.

The genetic process on earth had taken but a few billion years to randomly create life on earth. Poor Harold had to discuss each genetic choice with multiple committees before it could be considered for Venus. Compared to geologic time, it was quick, but the discussions did get a tad bit tedious. Harold had heard the story of the Australian rabbits enough times to make him want to up chuck each time it was brought up.

"Dr. MacAnish, thank you for coming to the committee meeting today. We realize you have important duties in Houston."

"Thank you for inviting me to speak before this distinguished committee." Harold had once again dressed for failure. His pants were tan khakis that had been permanent press before he had put them in the drier on roast. The shirt was striped and the tie plaid. He had seen some newscaster mix patterns and was sure it was OK. The pockets were full of junk. He either had a pelvic problem or a key case, wallet, handkerchief, and a small tool shop in his pockets. Thank god he didn't have a cellular phone. The lumps had inspired Emily to remark. "Is that thing alive? I don't remember it being so big." Harold hadn't gotten the message. Harold still kept enough junk in this pockets that people assumed he had an early model bionic penis. You know, ruff edges not yet squared off. The coat wasn't too bad. It matched nothing and had been crumpled on the plane. It was only his reputation that allowed him to roam free in these image conscious, lawyer filled rooms. The fashion police had an APB out on him.

"We were considering your latest propositions for the organisms to be planted onto Venus now that the surface temperature is only 40oC. All these requests are for bacteria, algae, and lichens. We were wondering when you were going to consider plants and animals. It is hard for us to get excited about the goopy and slimy germs you have done so well with in the past. The people of America just aren't excited about shipping a another ton of mildew 42 million kilometers to Venus. How about a fuchsia or a Boston fern?"

"Mr. Chairman, this is not a bar we are decorating, this is a planet with a delicate atmospheric composition which we are manipulating organically."

"Our scientific advisors at the general accounting office feel that it would be prudent to accelerate the introduction of species for both scientific and fiscal reasons. They feel that at 500 million dollars a trip we should introduce more varieties."

"Mr. Chairman, there are two ways to perform this transition from a lifeless barren rock to useful planet. One is to drop every species available on the surface and see what grows. The other is to carefully control the progress by introducing the required species in the appropriate sequence. We at the BioAtmospherics research project feel that controlled proliferation is the more appropriate method."

"Dr. MacAnish, there are countries in the world that have tried to control the economy, society, and thought. Our society has allowed free reign. In the last few years there has been an evolution in thought of those countries to the realization that random competition was better than a planned society, that planners were unable to do better than random chance. Even the stock market analysts are unable to do better than the market average despite all their careful analysis. We have deregulated many sectors of our economy with great success. It seems that we would do better sending a Noah's Arc full of plants, microorganisms, insects, and animals, and see what survives. However, we should be realistic in our choices and not send species that cannot possibly survive until conditions improve."

"No suburbanites?"

"Right."

"So we don't want the fern bar."

And so the second shipment of DNA based life forms was a selection of spores, seeds, microbes, insects, worms, and random small critters. No warm and fuzzy panda bears. But enough of a selection to allow some competition. Sometimes the committees do the right thing. Usually it is by deciding they have no ability to decide and abdicating responsibility.

Chapter 43

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